MIDDLETOWN -- With Greg Zullo taking care of business and his teammates threatening to break through inning after inning, it appeared that it was only a time before the Notre Dame-West Haven baseball team would punch a trip to the Class L title game for the third time in the last four years.

However, squandered opportunities and key RBI hits by Kyle Willoughby and Seth Hoagland lifted second-seeded Waterford to a 2-0 victory on Tuesday at Palmer Field.

The 11th-seeded Green Knights had runners in scoring position with one out in both the first and second innings but were unable to break through against Waterford's crafty left-handed pitcher Justin Pandolfe.

In the third inning it appeared as if Notre Dame drew first blood. Zach Korwek led off with a single and after a Drew Arciuolo single put runners at the corners with one out. Griffin Garabedian lofted a fly ball deep enough to score Korwek from third. However, after Korwek crossed the plate, Waterford appealed the play and Korwek was called out for leaving third too early.

"In a game like this, a semifinal game like this, when you have opportunities to score you have to take advantage of it and we didn't take advantage of it," Notre Dame coach Lou Kessler said. "The first two innings we had runners in scoring position and came up (empty), and then we get that call at third base leaving early and you thought it put you up 1-0. ... In a game like this, that could have been it, and it might have changed things. It might have changed the way they approached the game."

Even with the failure to get the go-ahead run, Zullo was throwing well enough for the Green Knights to believe they would still be able to advance.

Zullo retired 10 straight, five via strikeout, heading into the bottom of the fifth inning.

Connor Lewis led off with a walk to become the Lancers' first base runner since the first inning. On the next pitch Willoughby ripped to triple to right-center field to drive in the game's first run. In the sixth inning No. 9 hitter Jesse Coates singled and scored on Hoagland's single.

Pandolfe took care of the rest. After giving up five hits to the first 12 batters he faced, he allowed just one more the rest of the way.

"The lefty kept us off balance," Kessler said. "You don't see a lot of lefties over the course of the season and he pitched well, he was around the plate and we didn't get timely hitting. We outhit them, but they outscored us."

Pandolfe got 11 of his 21 outs via ground outs to improve to 4-0.

"The first inning was a bit of a struggle," Pandolfe said. "The leadoff batter (Arciuolo) he got on my fastball early and I just kept battling and told myself I have to get the next batter, keep throwing strikes and my teammates behind me they kept making plays."